The numbers on AI, with sources
The stats people quote about AI, with a named source on every single one. Where figures vary, we anchor on the strongest study and say so. No dramatized numbers.
Response time decides the sale
Contacting a new lead within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes makes it dramatically more likely to convert. From a study of 15,000+ leads.
Most people who reach voicemail don't leave a message — they call the next business. Missed calls are lost customers, not callbacks.
AI adoption is already mainstream
Up from 37% in 2024. Day-to-day AI use is now the norm, not the exception.
About 21% of firms have adopted it. Top uses: drafting correspondence, research, and summarizing documents.
And 82% report higher efficiency. The time savings are real when AI is actually used on real work.
Adoption isn't the problem. Getting value is.
Most teams are handed AI with no guidance, which is exactly why so much of it never turns into results.
Nearly four in ten also aren't sure how to use it safely. The barrier is know-how, not access.
Over half of inbound leads go unanswered — a basic intake gap AI is genuinely good at closing.
Most AI failures are implementation failures
The widely-cited MIT figure: most pilots never reach real, everyday use — and it's almost never the technology's fault.
AI SDR tools churn at high rates — and they fail on skipped onboarding and poor implementation, not bad models.
Up from 52% in 2023 — when the AI is grounded in real source material and built into the workflow properly.
A note on honesty: some widely-quoted AI figures come from vendor blogs, not audited studies. Where that’s the case we’ve said so and leaned on the peer-grade research instead. If you spot a number that needs a better source, tell us and we’ll fix it.